Conventional email systems include a “delete” command for removing unwanted messages. Typically, an unwanted email message is selected and then deleted using one of various known mechanisms. However, when the selected message is related to one or more other messages, the user must either delete each of the related messages individually or select the related messages manually and issue delete command on the selected set of messages.
Often times, users may wish to keep only one message from the set of related messages (for example, the one message which summarizes the discussion or the one message that contains the decision and its rationale). To accomplish this, users must select and delete each message in the set while taking care to not delete the single desired message.
What is needed is a mechanism that enables a user to delete a selected message and all related messages in one user action.
What is also needed is a mechanism that enables a user to keep a selected message but delete all related messages in one user action.